Tuesday, December 9, 2003
Sports GU's Anderson savors role of defensive stopper Dave Trimmer
- Staff writer
Kelly Graves may have said welcome first, but basically his message to Ashley Anderson on the first day of practice for the Gonzaga women's basketball team consisted of two words: Chandi Jones. The Bulldogs were going to open against Houston and Jones was the NCAA's scoring champion last year. Anderson was given the defensive assignment. And if that wasn't enough of a burden for the 6-foot sophomore from Enterprise, Ore., there were a few other words to add: Cathrine Kraayveld of Oregon, Giuliana Mendiola of Washington and Kim Smith of Utah. Kraayveld is a 6-foot-4 forward; Mendiola, at 5-11, is a point guard like the 5-10 Jones; Smith, is a 6-1 forward. Mendiola and Smith were players of the year in the Pac-10 and Mountain West conferences last year. And the quartet was on the GU schedule in the first two weeks of the season. "Actually, I was excited to take on the challenge of defending all these great players," Anderson said. "I feel like I played good defensively. It takes the whole team to shut someone down. What I can do, I did my best. There were some players who didn't score as well as they normally do. I did what I could and the team helped me out as much as they could." Jones scored 25 points, a bucket below last year's mark, but only had nine at halftime. Kraayveld was held to seven, Mendiola to 22 and Smith to 15 -- all below their averages. "I think she did well," Graves said. "It wasn't always one-on-one situations." There are several reasons Anderson's task was so extraordinary. One is the range of size and positions. Two is Anderson's relative lack of experience. And three? "We played a 2-3 zone in high school. ... I never played man-to-man defense in my life," she said. "Probably the hardest part is knowing your position on the court. ... In my zone I stood in the middle and blocked shots. ... When I'm guarding all these All-Americans ... (it's) fundamentals, and I never really learned those in high school." "I'd like to think it was something we did," Graves said. "She has the mentality it takes to be a good defensive player. She can really focus. If you need a stopper, you need somebody who can, No. 1, really focus on what they're doing. She has that ability. "Secondly, she has the gift of athleticism. She's strong and she's quick and she has good size. So she has the ability to be able to take people at all different positions. That's not something we coached. "Lastly, we tried to get her to buy into that. We're trying to give her that confidence she can be the stopper (and) she's only going to get better." Also impressive is that her emphasis on defense didn't hurt her on offense. She had a career high 17 against Houston and averaged 12 points in those four games. "Ultimately, she could be as good an athlete as I've coached, and I've coached some pretty damn good players over the years," Graves said. "She could be a professional." Idaho sophomore Autumn Fielding will leave school and the team at the end of fall semester, coach Mike Divilbiss announced. "Autumn has some higher priorities in her life that need to be taken care of, and school and basketball are not part of that right now," he said. He noted players have left the program over playing time and committment, "but that is not the case with Autumn at all. That is not even close and we respect her decision completely." Fielding, on the Big West All-Freshman team a year ago and an honorable mention all-conference selection, asked that the door be left open for a possible return, and Divilbiss said it would.
Fielding leaves Vandals